Matriarch

By corset-rebellion-follower

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda

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Chapter 20- Two Weeks Later

Cold. It was so cold. He was used to it, and it didn't bother him as much as it used to, but he missed his bed. He missed the warm covers. He missed the soft pillow underneath his head. But there wasn't anything he could do about it, so he would keep quiet. That was what he had to do, keep quiet. If he didn't, it would only hurt him more. That's what he had learned, the hard way.

Jiang snuggled closer to his mother and looked up at her. She looked different than he remembered her. She looked sad and tired. She used to be so happy and sing songs for him, smiling the whole while. He didn't remember much, but every memory of his mother before she had left had been a happy one. He wanted his Mama to be happy again.

He gently tugged on her dress. The pretty pattern wasn't nearly as nice as it once was. "Mama?"

She looked down at him with sleepy eyes. "Yes, Jiang?" He smiled a little and giggled as she scratched him behind the ear. She smiled again, which made him very happy.

"Mama, why can't we go see Sissy? I miss her."

Her smile fell. She released a weighted sigh from her mouth. "No, Jiang. I'm sorry. But we wouldn't be very welcome there. Your sissy is very mad at me."

"Why? Sissy's really nice. She'll be happy if we come back," Jiang said. She hugged him close to her, and he felt a little warmer.

"I know you miss her. But until things look a little better, we'll just have to live on our own. I'm sorry." He was disappointed, but didn't say anything about it. If he looked sad, then she would be even sadder.

After they had left Sissy, they hadn't really stayed anywhere. The day they left, she had taken him to a building with lots of people sitting around at tables and talking and eating. She set him down on one of the tables and told him to stay put, and then she left. When she came back, she picked him up and carried him to a room with a small bed, a table and chair, and a small mirror hanging on the wall. The room wasn't very big, but it didn't matter much to him since he had a place to sleep and food to eat.

The next morning she was gone, so he just sat quietly in the room, by himself, until she came back. It was very late, and she looked tired and just curled up in bed next to him and fell right to sleep.

They stayed there for a few days, but then he accidentally broke the mirror on the wall. He had skinned his knee and cut his hand, but the very angry man who made them leave and wouldn't let them back in didn't seem to care.

After that, they just walked around the village all day, and then at night they found somewhere quiet and secluded where they would spend the night. It was almost always outside, but Mama did her best to find somewhere that was dry and out of the wind.

Now they were sitting in a small alleyway between two houses. How nice it would be to be inside one of the houses. The smell of cooking vegetables was drifting out of one, and both probably had a warm fire he could curl up beside and sleep.

It was windy, and water was dripping off the roofs, making little puddles. Their clothes were wet and soiled. They were dirty because they hadn't bathed since they left, and they hadn't eaten for days. And now it was starting to snow again. He gently shook his mother's arm.

"Mama." She didn't respond. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing had evened out. She had fallen asleep.

"Mama, wake up. Mama!" She didn't move or open her eyes. He rested his head against her stomach. His bottom lip began to quiver, and tears stung his eyes. His stomach was hurting from being empty for so long.

In a small, scared voice, he whispered, "Daddy?"

But only the whistling wind called back, making him even colder and bringing the tears from his eyes down his cheeks.

Tigress lifted her face out of her pillow. Her eyes were bloodshot, and a little moisture was dripping out of her nose.

Jiang was gone. The little boy who she had fed and dressed and slept beside was just gone. Lin had taken him, and Tigress had no idea where they were. They could be miles away from the Valley if Lin decided to cross the Thread of Hope.

She wanted him back, more than anything. She had become so accustomed to seeing his sleeping face next to her when she woke up, and sometimes still having to nod to get him to eat. The mentioning of the words "hide and seek" made her burst into sobs. And she had posted all the paintings he had done, save the two of his parents, on the walls of her bedroom.

A soft knock on the door had brought her out of her wallowing. She didn't want to see anyone, but she shoved her sadness and tears away and stood up. No one would see her cry. She couldn't seem weak. Not to anyone. She slowly opened the door. Chen was standing out in the hall. He smiled at her, and she tried to smile back.

"Hello, Master Tigress."

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Hello." There was a short period of silence.

"I… I got a little worried about you. No one has seen you for a while, and I haven't had to fix the Seven Swinging Clubs of Instant Oblivion once. Usually you have me in the training hall eight or nine times a week," he said.

She barely whispered out, "Sorry."

"Is there something you want to talk about?" he offered. She shook her head. "Are you sure? It might make you feel better."

She sighed raggedly, shaking her head and looking away. "I miss Jiang."

Chen nodded. "I know how close you were to him. I'm sorry that he and his mother left so abruptly. It must be hard for you."

She nodded and sniffled, her voice cracking. "I keep seeing him. Everywhere. And I'll hold my arms out to him, and just wait for him to run into my embrace. But he never does." The tears finally fell and her shoulders started quaking.

He lifted her chin and wiped the tears off her cheeks with his thumb. "Hey, hey, none of that. I'm sure that he's fine, and that he's happy. You did a really good thing by taking him in and getting him used to having someone take care of him again."

"I know," she said, trying to collect herself, "I know. But it's not the same. Nothing's the same without him here." He wrapped her in a hug, gently patting and rubbing her back.

"It'll be okay. You'll see. Everything will be fine." She nodded and rested her head on his chest. After a few moments of just standing there, Tigress stood up straight.

"C-Chen?"

He smiled. "Yes?"

She wiped her eyes. "Can… can you help me with something?" she asked.

"Of course. Anything for the lady." She smiled a little, then put her paw on the back of his head and pulled him down, catching his lips in a kiss. He just stood there, shocked, at the fact that Tigress, Master Tigress of the Furious Five, was engaging in a very passionate act with him.

Slowly he eased into the kiss, and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her body close to his. Without breaking the kiss, Tigress slid open the door to her room. She placed her paws on his upper arms and led him into the room, closing the door softly behind them.

A/N: The beginning of this chapter was partially inspired by the book Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen. It's a really great book, if anyone's looking for something good to read.

Research paper. On snow leopards. Over 2,000 words long. Eight full pages. But I DID IT! OH YEAH! And now I will never have to face the dreaded English research paper again! YES! My English teacher is crazy. She made us turn in 40 notecards with everything we were going to include in our paper on them. What's the point of writing the paper if you already know everything that's going to be included? And we were only allowed to use TWO Internet sources. THAT. SUCKED. But now I never have to do it again! Yayyyyyy!

I'm going to throw myself a little party, and maybe go down to my local zoo to see the snow leopard there. Holla!